Effects of one Awakening
re-edited
Summary: What happens if Zack woke up Vincent during their escape from Shinra Manor? What would happen if that single incident provided a newer path for the duo's fate?
This story is a good bit AU from this point on but then again all fan-fiction is AU. I also have three more FFVII fic in the waiting wanting to be written but I'm going to wait until after five chapters.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything but the OC who are not in games, stories, or movies. (Names may be similar, but personality and descriptions are different.)
My grammar is still kind of bad so if anyone wants to point out mistakes in any form, please do so.
Warning: random cursing and mild violence. No explicit sexual or other wise situations…yet.
"Talking"
'Thinking'
Flashback
-Planet/Chaos-
Chapter 1: Awaking and Moving on
Shinra Manor-Hojo's secrets lab
Green. Green mako was what Zackary Fair woke up to as he frantically searched for Angeal, his mentor, who appeared in his dream telling the First Class SOLDIER that he is a failure because his dream is lost. He finally noticed his fellow country boy and only infantry friend floating in the mako next to him. Knowing he needed to get the hell out of the mako tank to free Cloud, Zack punched the reinforced glass until it shattered.
'Crap,' Zack mentally shouted as his tired body flowed out of the mako and landed face first on to the cold, unforgiving stone tiles.
'That hurt a bit,' Zack silently muttered as his mako enhanced hearing picked up footsteps heading toward this room. Zack debated on what to do, play dead and knockout whoever those footsteps belong to, or ambush him from behind the door. The answer came to him when Zack noticed that he could not pick himself up at moment. 'How long have Cloud and I been in those tanks?'
Deciding on the 'play dead strategic,' Zack waiting until he heard the footstep stop right next to him, he felt his strength returned enough to strike. Zack managed to stand, surprising the young scientist, and punch the man. Zack heard a light snap of his victim's neck bone before the man lay dead on the ground.
'WHAT THE HELL?' Zack stood frozen for a second, realizing that the light knockout blow he gave the scientist ended up killing the man. 'What did Hojo do to me…Wait, what did he do the Spiky? Shit.'
Zack reached down, pulled the keys off the dead man, and turned to release Cloud from his mako tank. Zack caught Cloud as he fell out of his tank. 'Man he lighter then normal,' Zack absently though as he looked for a place to lay his best friend down. He decided against laying Cloud on the examination table as a few memories of what happened to them surfaced when Zack touched it, so he did the next best thing by having Cloud set with his back supported by the table.
After sitting the blond against the examination table, Zack went off in search of a weapon of some sort in the next room. Opening the door, he walked into the library where he last saw Sephiroth. Where Seph went crazy and destroyed Nibelheim, along with all of Cloud's friends and family.
Zack then noticed that those 'brilliant mind' scientists left his Buster Sword, items, Shinra issued PHS, and materias on the top of the desk not to far away from were Sephiroth piled those research books and notes. Zack started to re-equip himself when a thought ran through his mind about a certain room that he had broken into during his first trip down to the basement. (1)
'If this place is a lab for Hojo, then that man sleeping in the coffin must be one of the other experiments that madman did before we got here.'
As he was leaving, Zack noticed the chest on the ground and opened it with hopes that the container had medical supplies in it for mako poisoning. Zack found a few thousand gils instead, which would help him get Cloud treatment when he finds a hospital or clinic not under Shinra control. While the money was nice and all, it would not help him get immediate medical attention for Cloud until they could make it to the next town.
He went back to the laboratory, lifted Cloud up, and headed out the door and into the caverns. They traveled only a few dozen yards before they reached the locked room Zack 'stumbled' into the first time. Hoping to save another person from even more torture that Hojo could still inflict on the sleeping man, Zack cut through the locked room with a quick slash with his Buster Sword.
"Wow," Zack muttered as he managed to swing his Buster Sword with one hand and destroy the steel door, "Didn't think that would work with one swing."
Zack looked to his pal and said, "Cloud, I'm going to help someone else out, so stay put and I'll us all out of here." He sat Cloud down on another coffin as he tried to remember which coffin that man slept in.
It was a bit of a guessing game as Zack was forced to open each coffin one at a time. Two of the coffins held monsters inside that tried to eat him, but they met their ends with a quick cast of Hell Thundaga. Zack thanked Gaia that Hell Thundaga can cause instant dead. At last, after a long search, Zack found the right coffin.
"Hey man, wake up," Zack said as he shook the man. Within seconds, Zack jumped back as his SOLDIER instincts flared. He barely dodged the gold gauntlet that shot out from the coffin aimed at where his head was. The man inside levitated out from the confinement of his coffin, his crimson eyes ablaze, glaring straight into Zack's semi-playful eyes.
"Why have you awakened me?" The red-caped man said as he slowly reached behind his cloak with his right hand. The man had already noticed the glow behind Zack's eyes, as well as the overly large sword on the young man's back. Vincent prepared for a fight should anything indicate that this young man was here to kill him. At the same time, Zack just studied the guy in front of him. The red cloaked man was paler then Sephiroth, about the same height as himself (it was odd because Zack was sure that man was taller than him before), wore a black body suit under his cloak with metallic boots, one gloved right hand and one golden gauntlet that covered his left hand. He also seemed to have a gun holster on his right side… "Hey wait a minute man." Zack shouted with his hands up with the universal stop gesture as he finally noticed the cloaked man's hand holding his overly sized handgun (judging from the gun holster on his side).
Zack told the man in front of him, "I thought you were err...one of the people Hojo liked to experiment wit-" Dodging a gunshot when the man reacted violently to Hojo's name. "Hey. Hold it, man. He did the same to us! I came here in order to get you out!"
The crimson-eyed man looked at the First Class SOLDIER and noticed the comatose Shinra infantryman behind Zack. It took less then a few seconds for the man to put the pieces together before he holstered his tri-barrel gun.
"I stay here… to atone for the sin that I have created." Said the man darkly, his voice gruff from disuse.
"What sins would that be," Zack muttered out loud before looking directly at the man in front of him. "The sins I have are of no importance for you." The man said as he started to lower himself back into his coffin.
'Man this guy could make those vampire books look like kiddy stories with his broody attitude.' Zack though as he said, "Unless you slaughtered everyone in Nibelheim for no reason like Sephiroth did." The man stiffened at Sephiroth's name but Zack continued onward not noticing his audience's body movement. "Then your sin has to be pretty great to not want to catch some sun rays." Zack finished.
The gunman turned Zack and asked, "What happened to Sephiroth?" The man growled as his crimson eyes began to glow brighter. "What happened to Lucrecia's son?"
'What? Who? Lucrecia's so… holy shit. This means Jenova's not Sephiroth mother! I wished I woke this guy up before I met up with Seph. Maybe he would have stayed sane.'
"He went insane thinking Jenova was his mother and that humanity killed off the Cetra race which that thing was supposedly a part of." Zack answered, hoping that this man would not try anything rash. After all, both of them recently woke up, and both are thoroughly pissed off at Hojo right now and could use a target to take their anger out on.
Zack began his tale of what happened before and during the Nibelheim incident. After Zack finished his tale, the man paused and looked up to the ceiling, muttering so low that Zack's enhanced hearing barely caught. "Another sin I have to atone for." Zack knew the man would probably continue to blame everything on himself so he decided to help the man out.
"Hey man, don't be such an emo," The First Class SOLDIER received a death glare from Vincent but Zack continued on. "As long as Hojo is still out there, we can't really atone for any sins. After all, he is the one who locked you up down here and probably caused Sephiroth to go insane."
The man mulled over his options as he quickly drew his Cerberus and shot past Zack, killing a Sahagin that managed to come through the open door.
"I'll come with you if your path crosses with Hojo." The crimson-eyed man said as he holstered his weapon again.
"Thank Gaia you said yes, I could use the help." Zack said as he went back to Cloud and lifted the infantryman up resume their escape. "Oh yeah," Zack snapped his fingers before saying, "My name is Zackary Fair, First Class SOLDIER, but you can call me Zack, and this Chocobo head is my buddy Cloud Strife." Zack looked away for a second before quietly saying, "The guy whose hometown was torched by a man we both respected."
The red-caped man nodded an acknowledgment before walked forward and said, "My name is Vincent Valentine, formerly of the Turks."
The shock from that information lasted until Vincent walked past Zack and started shooting monstrous bats and Sahagins that headed their way, attracted by the scent of mako coming off both Cloud and Zack.
The group of former Shinra employees hurried through the cavern and up the ladder to the second floor as Vincent started to collect the gil and items the monsters left behind. Just as Zack started to climb up the ladder, another group of bats attacked and almost made Zack lose his grip on the ladder. Two thunderous booms and they turned into green dust as Vincent flew right past the two former Shinra fighters.
When they opened up the hidden door, the bright sunlight blinded Zach for a moment.
After getting the sunspots out of his eyes, Zack went to his room and laid Cloud on the bed, all the while Vincent searched the Manor to kill more of the monsters and get the ammo he left in his room before Hojo's experiments on him.
Zack searched his wardrobe and found a spare SOLDIER uniform. 'Well Spiky, after what Hojo did to both of us and you finishing off Sephiroth your definitely a SOLDIER by right.'
"We should leave when it's dark," Vincent said as he silently walking into the room. 'Creepy,' Zack thought as the remembered something very important.
"I better change Cloud's clothes here." Zack said causing Vincent to raise his eyebrow slightly. "Me and him spent Gaia knows how long in those mako tanks. Those mako-soaked clothes Cloud is wearing will definitely not help him on his road to recovery." After Vincent left to scan the area for Shinra patrols, Zack yawned and realized he was still out of shape to be traveling at the moment so he decided to rest until nightfall.
-Nibelheim- with Vincent
As Zack changed Cloud into the SOLDIER's uniform and got some shut eye, Vincent scouted what was supposedly left of Nibelheim and found an untouched, unburnt town. Narrowing his eyes at one of the buildings, Vincent could tell this town was just a replica of the original most of the buildings looked newer then his memories of the country town. Also, based on the information Zack gave him, most buildings had guards watching them in case one of the 'citizens' slipped-up in their roles...or if an experiment managed to escape.
He noticed a few Shinra infantrymen scattered around in patrols and thought. 'What should I do? Take out a few and disguise us as infantrymen or break through them with brute force.'
Vincent calculated the odds for their group. If they tried to disguise themselves as infantrymen, then Zack's Buster Sword and his Cerberus would have to be left behind. Also, Cloud would have to be caught and that was not going to happen, as Vincent had a strong feeling that Zack would take down any infantrymen who tried.
If they tried to break through, then once they had rested, Cloud would become a liability since he was still recovering from mako addiction. While Vincent believed his marksmanship had not decreased at all over the 20 plus years he been asleep, he was not sure about Zack's fighting skills. After all, the SOLDIER program began not long before Hojo experimented on him, judging by Sephiroth's age in Zack's story.
'Time to head back,' Vincent thought as the sunset in the distant. He was almost at the gates of Shinra Manor when the former Turks spotted Zack carrying a SOLDIER dressed Cloud out of the property. It was kind of funny seeing as Zack had to his large sword out in one hand while trying to keep Cloud from falling.
"Hey Vincent, how…how was the town," Zack asked seeing the man walk up from the town's path. Vincent just explained what he saw, and detailed the Shinra patrols around the city. The he talked about the two options they had. Well, Zack being who he was picked the second option since he did not want to leave his sword and let Cloud be captured.
With that, the trio of experiments left and headed right to into town. They quickly walked towards the town's exit only to be cut off by six Shinra infantrymen.
"It a breakout!" said a Shinra Commander. He shouted as the second patrol came around from behind the group. However, no one noticed that Vincent had disappeared the second the Shinra Commander appeared.
"Oh man," Zack said to himself as he drew his Buster Sword. "Hey Vincent…Vincent?" Zack finally noticed that Vincent had disappeared.
"Crap," Zack unleashed a Hell Thundaga into the first group of cannon fodder. He then quickly slashed the fourth infantryman that tried to hit him from behind. The last two aimed their machine gun at them…more specifically at the unresponsive Cloud. However, before those two grunts could even shoot, four thundering shots from a familiar gun turned the troopers into headless corpses.
Zack looked up from where he heard the gunshots and noticed Vincent, on top of the water tower, aiming his gun at the two bodies. 'So that is where he went, I thought he abandoned us for a moment there.'
With a nod of acknowledgement in each others fighting skills, Zack headed out of the town as quickly possible while Vincent gathered the potions, Hi-potions, a Blizzard materia (which was odd since Shinra infantrymen were not suppose to have them, not even the commanders), and ammo off the dead commanders handguns.
Since the group was bigger, Zack decided to leave Cloud at a rest spot not far away. Along the way, Zack picked up a sniper rife that he handed to Vincent saying, "Umm…I'm no good with guns and there are several of those Shinra Gun Bull Heads out there. You mind taking them out Vincent?"
During the trip to the beach, Zack was impressed with Vincent's skills; how each shot took down a Gun Bull Head. Every two seconds, another shot rang out, the former Turks taking down enemy after enemy until he made it to the beach.
-With Vincent-
Vincent guarded the comatose Cloud from any monsters that tried to attack, waiting for Zack to return from 'planning time'. He managed to gather quite a bit of gil from each monster he killed, each slain with his guns and bare hands. He used Blizzard a few times to conserve his ammo.
After an hour, Zack came back but he was not alone. Far behind the SOLDIER was a familiar beautiful red-orange haired woman in a black-blue suit. The suit of a Turks agent set off alarms in Vincent head. Vincent floated into the trees above and waited for the opportunity to strike.
'Where did Vincent go?' Zack thought as he approached Cloud. "The Turks are here, too. It is too dangerous to move now. We'll rest here until morning?" Zack said to both Cloud and Vincent as he looked up trying to spot gunman before saying, "Then we'll leave at dawn."
'Let me see here, Vincent hid in the trees to ambush an enemy in the earlier battle. But there shouldn't be any…Cissnei!' Zack turned around immediately a saw Cissnei, who was startled on how fast he turned to her as he yelled. "Cissnei DUCK!"
Cissnei did as Zack told her but her left shoulder was struck by the shot Vincent took. The punch from the wound caused her to stumble into Zack's embraces as the SOLDIER First Class gave her a Hi-potion for her wounds.
"VINCENT. What the hell man?" Zack shouted as Vincent landed on the ground in front of them. "I know Cissnei is a Turks and all but she's my friend too." Zack finished quietly as he started to remember what he said to her during their confrontation at that beach.
-flashback-
"So, Cissnei, you're here to take us back, right?" Zack asked. After a silent pause Zack pegged, "Please, just walk away!"
Clinching his fist, Zack continued on, "I thought we could outrun the army, but the Turks are a different story."
Cissnei looked down before replying softly, "Zack, I'm sorry..." I pulled out her Rekka and prepared to fight against her crush. "This is my job." She said with strength behind it. "If you want to escape, you have to..." Cissnei trailed off knowing the strength she pull out was now leaving her as quickly as it came. The Turks' shuriken paused for a second before Cissnei double her efforts and threw it.
Zack, in one swift motion, deflected Cissnei's Rekka and had his sword pointed at the Turks. Cissnei, realizing she was at a turning point in her life, took a step forward, not even reaching for her weapon, to ask Zack something but the former First Class SOLDIER just commanded. "Step back. Next time...I'll really have to..." A agony shot through his facial appearance so he just kept point his Buster Sword at Cissnei before running away.
-End of Flashback-
"How do you know she won't try to capture you, she is part of the Turks like I was." Vincent said coldly, knowing that when a member of the Turks stalks someone it usually on assassination, capture or spying missions Shinra gave them.
Cissnei 'tried' to get out of Zack embrace but it felt a little to comfortable for her to want to so she did the next best thing for a fan girl who is in the arms of her idol and with a superficial wound. She fell 'fainted' despite the fact the wound did nothing to her.
"But still Vincent, you didn't have to shoot at her," Zack said as he gave the man a death glare.
"You know when a Turk is given a mission they will fulfill it to the letter." Vincent stated as he picked up Cissnei's Rekka, (a red and white compass shaped Fuma Shuriken) and keys she dropped.
"Well yeah, but-but she already let me go once," Zack tried to cover for her but could not think of why she would other then being his friend and fan, which he found slightly disturbing. After all, his heart belongs to his flower girl back in Midgar.
"If she goes against her orders…now, then she might end up like me," Vincent stated as he realized what would possible happen to her if she returned with a false report with her bullet wound.
If Zack was paying any attention to the lovely girl in his arm, he would have noticed her body stiffen at the mere mention of become an experiment of Hojo.
Zack mulled over what to do. One, he could take Cissnei with them and say she was a hostage in order for her not to get marked down as a traitor. But she still might end up an experiment for Hojo anyways with a false report by the Shinra troopers. Two, they could leave her here for the wolves, which was definitely not happening. Leaving one of the sexiest women is all of Shinra to the whims of the infantrymen back in Nibelheim was not his definition of a good idea. Of course, the third option was to kill Cissnei and bury her, but that would just make things worse for the escapees, as most of the Turks liked her for her commitment to work and fighting skills.
Not wanting the two latter options of the three, Zack picked up Cissnei in bridal a style and asked Vincent. "Mind getting Cloud for me? We are going to 'borrow' Cissnei's ride." Spinning the key Vincent just had in his hands making the form Turks think, 'When did he take those from me?'
'I gotta hand it to that Wutai kid for always stealing from me,' Zack thought as found the motorcycle with sidecar attached to it. 'She a good teacher at the act of stealing.'
-Two days later- (2)
-After Cissnei telling Zack how long it's has been since the Nibelheim incident-
The group of rogue Shinra employees had been driving towards the bridge that bypassed the Western Mountains and connected to Junon. They had to constantly swap drivers between Zack and Cissnei so that Zack would be ready to fight any threats that they might encounter.
Cissnei had decided to join the group since the Turks could not protect one of their own from Hojo, how would they protect her. Zack is the barrier protecting her from Hojo's labs, at least until they make it to Midgar.
Cissnei decided to change her clothes since wearing a blood-soaked Turks uniform was not exactly the definition of inconspicuous. She took off her suit, after Vincent offered his cloak to cover her, before she had Zack go out and buy her clothes with her measurements. It freaked out everyone, including Vincent but he did not show it, when the former Turks' cloak grew back out of nowhere.
Zack swore never to go shopping for women clothes again seeing as how the owner of the clothes shop in the caravan was gay and though Zack was as well. He was only saved thanks to the fact his eyes started glowing with mako, scaring off the man as the SOLDIER finished shopping. Zack brought Cissnei a yellow shirt and white pants order to throw off any connection they might make with her wearing blue or black.
Cissnei later came herself, with her new clothes on, a red tank top, black jeans, and Vincent red cloak hiding her face and weapon from view. She found out that this caravan destination was Costa del Sol and 'discovered' what other supplies the tradesmen had.
Vincent enter the caravan at a different time, in order to make it seem they were not traveling together, and brought a Force Stealer and a Quicksilver for Cloud in case he ever recovered from his mako addiction. The reason for the gun came from Zack's statement regarding Cloud's sharpshooting, while the sword was kept because of his ability to swing the Buster Sword around before being mako enchanted.
Vincent went in to buy these weapons after the two came back so that the caravan would not make a connected between him and the two, despite the fact one wore a cloak 'similar' to his.
Making room for all of those items was a bit of a stretch, but as luck would have it, they managed to find a small motorcycle trailer to carry all of their spare things. The next task was getting new PHS, seeing as they almost got ambushed when they used Cissnei's phone to call one of Kunsel contacts to leave a message for Aerith (that he will be coming back ASAP along with some other things). They kept the news feed on Cissnei's PHS active since that could not be tracked like the phone calls.
Overall, it cost them half the gils they had on them, which was about 134,950 gils. Thank Gaia Zack found the stash of his and Sephiroth's gil in the Manor, as well as his Odin and Bahamut Fury materia. After they made their purchase, they hurried toward Nibelheim before taking another direction to one of the remaining continental bridges.
They threw the bloody clothes away in a nearby bush before heading out once more to whatever destination Zack picked.
Once they reached the bridge, Zack started driving again as Vincent sat on top of the trailer. Cloud rested in the sidecar cloaked with Vincent's first cloak. Cissnei slept in front of Zack, sitting were the gas tank should be. After all, who would want to wrap their hand around Zack while he carried the Buster Sword on his back?
Just as they were about to reach a split going toward Junon or Gold Saucer, Vincent swiftly drew his Cerberus and fired four times, killing a Genesis copy standing on an overhead. "Not again," Zack groaned as he stopped the motorcycle with a screeching halt, mildly surprised that the trailer did not flip on them. Once they stopped, Zack helped Cissnei up and prepare for battle.
Cissnei stood back to guard Cloud as Zack and Vincent rushed to meet with the remaining Genesis clone. But before they could make it to the copy, Zack got kicked from behind while Vincent just swung his left arm around a scattered a fireball aimed at him. Genesis to off into the air to avoid Vincent's first shot but the rest of the former Turks shots it the former SOLDIER's wings.
The remaining Genesis copy took advantage of the originals sneak attack and slashed at Zack only to clip the SOLDIER's hair. The copy hurried and grabbed the hair as Vincent fired at the Genesis. Who told Zack what had happened to him and Cloud with the S cells? Genesis took off higher into the air, avoiding bullets, magic shards of ice and a red giant shuriken.
"Zack, behind you," Cissnei shouted as she jumped into the air, caught her shuriken and threw Rekka at a mutating Genesis copy. Her weapon managed to take off its metal hand on the two transparent wings the copy formed. Zack dove in and took off the clone's hands with a quick swipe of his Buster Sword before rolling under the remaining wing claw. The monster clone turned to strike Zack from behind, but its head exploded into a dozen chucks from a well-placed gunshot.
Scavenging what supplies they could off of the copy, the group continued on their path to Gongaga, despite the warnings from Vincent and Cissnei gave of a possible Shinra ambush being set up.
-Two weeks later-
Riding through the dusty terrain, Zack headed for a ledge not far from his hometown, Gongaga, to stop and observe for Shinra activity. What he and his companies saw was a ruined country town and a destroyed mako reactor. Zack felt as if he had been punched in the gut when he noticed how much destruction befell his hometown that was probably caused by the failure of the mako reactor.
They rode up to the ruined mako reactor to hide because no one would be crazy enough to hid in a possibly mako poisoned area. With their transport hidden, Zack and Cissnei went into town to talk with Zack's parents if they were still there. Vincent volunteered to watch over Cloud and their transport for a while as the two went off to see the parents.
After a few hours and a couple of monsters fight, Vincent could feel Chaos moving inside him, warning him that a danger to the planet was near. Within seconds, half a dozen of mutated Genesis copies and someone with a white lab coat landed not far from where Cloud was. Vincent quickly pulled out Cerberus and firing repeatedly, killing off three of the copies before they could defend themselves.
One of the remaining copies took out his curved sword and tried to hack Vincent into pieces. Vincent blocked the first two strikes with his gauntlet arm and ducked under an overhead swipe before kicking the copy back and firing Cerberus at directly into its helmet. The .45 caliber rounds pierced the light steel plating in the helmet and turned the head inside into a bloody mush.
A white winged man flew in and drove two of the remaining monstrous copies into the wall. However, the wingman's attack distracted Vincent long enough for the lab coat man sent the former Turk into a pillar with a punch.
'Sloppy!' Vincent mentally yelled at himself as he got back up in time to see Zack's spiky hair in the distance.
The white wingman took down one of the monstrous copies before receiving a punch to the back of his head curtsey of the lab coat man. Zack and Cissnei returned to fight the last of the Genesis clones and a white lab coat man named Dr. Hollander. Just as Zack started wailing on the former doctor with his fists, worm monsters attacked from out of nowhere and targeted Cissnei and Zack. Zack managed to hack the first two worm monsters in half with a quick horizontal swing of his Buster Sword before kicking another monster into the air for Cissnei to kill with her Rekka.
Both of them were force away from Cloud as more and more worm monster appeared. Just before the good doctor could reach Cloud, a beast type monster appeared and shoulder rammed the degrading man into the reactor. The monster leaped into the air and sent twin energy balls into the hole where the Dr. Hollander laid, which turned the man into lifestream particles.
Once the doctor finally merged with the lifestream did the beast turn to Zack and Cissnei who stood in front of the injured white-winged man and Cloud. The Beast slowly took a step toward the group, fading with each step, until a bright flash caused everyone to cover their eyes for a second (with the exception of Cloud).
Once the flash spots in their eyes faded away, the group of rogues Shinra employees (since everyone in the group are former workers) saw Vincent in place of the Beast that decimated Dr. Hollander.
"Err," Zack said as he re-sheathed his Buster Sword. "Vincent, you mind telling everyone what just happen."
Seeing the frightened look on Cissnei's face and the fighting stance the white winged man had, Vincent began a short version of his tale of what Hojo did to him, and how a similar process was probably done to Cloud and Zack.
The tale Vincent told everyone had a few holes that the former Turk left out, but no one asked about them. The only thing Cissnei was glad about was the fate that she had escaped from their decision of taking her in.
After Vincent's tale, Zack began questioning the injured Angeal copy about who he was and why did he help them. Zack and Cissnei nearly went into shock when the Angeal copy turned out to be the missing Director Lazard of SOLDIER. Finding out that Director Lazard was the reason Hollander escaped and the motives he originally had before Angeal's ideas replace those. Lazard also reveal that the dumbapples that Genesis kept eating in front of rouges were from the destroyed town of Banora.
-The remains of Banora (one months later)-
They made it to the former town of Banora after a month of traveling. It took them that time in order to get Zack as close to full strength as possible for his fight against Genesis.
Zack made the obvious comment on its appearance, as it was so different from how he left it with all the crater and spots where the lifestream was visible. Zack parked the motorcycle next to the remains of a house as he went after Genesis himself, telling everyone else to watch over Cloud as Lazard flew in to assist. Cissnei would have accompanied Zack despite him telling them to watch over Cloud, if it were not for the fact that one and a half companies of Shinra troopers started pouring in to the area to arrest/execute the group of rouge Shinra employees. Cissnei saw the first squad enter with their guns pointed at Vincent so she yell, "Vincent! Behind you!"
Vincent's reaction was golden as he quickly pulled up and fired Cerberus at the incoming Shinra troopers. The gunman dove behind the building the trailer was behind as bullet came flying back in retaliation. He grabbed the Cloud's unused Quicksilver and some ammo for Cissnei as she and Lazard sent more troopers to an early grave with hand-to-hand combat, Cissnei's Rekka and the discarded Shinra machineguns scattered about.
"Vincent! Watch out, behind you!" Cissnei yelled again when a Shinra attack helicopter flew in with it mini guns blazing. Vincent turned and saw the trail of hot lead flying towards his positions. The former Turk threw Cissnei the handgun before jumped high into the air while shooting his Cerberus at a squad of grunts attacking Lazard from behind, who was busy dealing with a pair of infantry commander who tried to take Cloud with them. Not even completely reloading his gun, Vincent shot down a Shinra sniper who was posted twenty meter east of him. Hearing the motors on the helicopter getting closer, Vincent allowed himself to freefall under the flying death machine while fully reloading his gun.
The men on the helicopter tried to make a second round at the crimson gunman when they received gunfire from Cissnei, who used Cloud's new gun, distracted the helicopter. The distraction the former Turks provided gave Vincent ample time fly beside the helicopter to fire all eighteen bullets into the cockpit. The pilot and co-pilot turned into a bloody mess as the helicopter turned into a spinning buzz saw. It crashed into a group of broken troopers, curtsy of Lazard beating the crap out of them.
When the helicopter crashed, it distracted Lazard long enough for a couple of Shinra troopers to yell, "Gun that monster down!" Within seconds after the troopers' shout, dozens of bullets pelted Lazard in the back. It was only thanks to the Angeal cell that Lazard had prevent him from giving the grunts the pleasure of hearing him scream in pain.
Just as the Shinra troopers reloaded their machineguns to finish off Lazard, a winged…dog? Everyone, including Vincent and Cissnei, paused to look at the dog ripping the infantrymen apart and then at each other before continuing the battle.
'How many more grunts are there?' Cissnei though as she used the last clip to the Quicksilver to take down two of the bio-troopers in this army. "AHHH," Cissnei screeched as a several bullets managed to tear past her bulletproof vest and hit her abdomen. She threw her Rekka once more before crawling over where Lazard crouched. The former Turks pulled the bullets with a small pocketknife before drinking down a Hi-potion Lazard held for her.
She knew why Lazard did not drink the potion as his degradation prevented him from healing. "H-how many are left?" She asked as Lazard pulled her into the cover of the house. "Too many for you to go back out there," The former director of SOLDIER said as picked up one of the few swords the infantry carried with them.
The dog that save Lazard earlier attacked and killed another three troopers that tried to enter the building. The blood of the troopers splattered the grounds of the entrance, making it frighten enough for the soldiers to hesitate to enter.
"You stay here while I'll take care of what left," Lazard said as he took off through the roof and droved into another squad of infantrymen. He cut down three just by holding his sword sideways and flying past the point man in the soldiers' formation.
Vincent, knowing he did not have much ammo left, did the last thing any of the Shinra troopers expected to happen. He turned into his Galian Beast form and unleashed multiple energy balls into the last four groups of Shinra troopers. Bodies flew into the air as a red shuriken, sword, claws or dog (?) jaws quickly cut down the one that stood up from the explosion. Two of the troopers' roars of rage caused the dog monster to attack them, only to meet with a large explosion as the two grunts armed all of their grenades to explode on impact.
"Monsters," one of the surviving commanders shouted as he tried to escape back to the transport truck. This was only supposed to be a simple mission. Kill Hojo's specimens and determine the status of a missing Turks member that went after those two.
The evidence found in the countryside of Nibelheim told the two Turks, a male with a Kanata and a female with a shotgun, and Shinra troopers that the missing member of the Shinra's spy force was attacked and injured there. He was the man who found the blood splatter there after killing off some Nibel wolves that were surrounding it.
The Turks the troopers had with them called their superior with a pissed off look on their faces. He had heard one say, "What the hell did Hojo do to those men?"
After a few minutes of quiet chattering, the female member paled and yelled at his team to hurry up and find a trail.
It was later that one of his buddies, who now lay dead on the grounds of Banora, who told everyone what he supposed happen to the missing Turks member, Cissnei. Many of the men in his squad were on the side that said she the sexist female Shinra employee, so naturally the speculation was that the escaped specimens took her as a stress relief from the experiment done to them. After all, it was the female member of the two Turks accompanying them that paled bleach white from whatever her superior told her.
Three days later, they found the evidence that might support that theory as they found remains of a bloody Turks uniform complete with blood soaked undergarments. The female Turks looked so enraged that her partner back away as punched the Shinra transport truck, leaving a fist sized dent in. It became a unanimous agreement to get the hell out of her way after seeing the dent in an armored vehicle.
They received a report of a missing squad of infantrymen station in the area who went off to investigate a PHS call from the missing operative. Later, the group found dead troopers' remains. They were so cut up that everyone except the male Turks member lost their lunch and breakfast.
They returned to Midgar with his squad only to have him and his men sent with a company and a few squads of Shinra troopers to Banora.
It took three weeks to get there and with luck they found one of the missing specimen as well as the missing Turks operative right next to the building they approached from the east. She was not missing, at least from what he was seeing unlike his men, she defected to protect the experiment from Shinra. He and a few members of his squad were about to open fire on her when a red-cloaked man appeared with his gun drawn and slightly aiming at the Turks member.
Most of his men mutter that that gunman was holding her hostage as everyone noticed the Turks member was not visibly armed.
His men were about to fire when the bitch of a Turk gave their position away. She yelled to the gunman who in turn fired away at his men. A man drop with each shot t-that vampire, based on the red and black the man wore, that shot at them.
Most of the men in the company, think along the same lines of the "that guy is a monster/vampire," fired away only towards the red-cloaked man. That was a mistake on their part as a white-wing and supposedly dead Angeal appeared and decimated two squads of infantrymen with just close quarter combat.
Then everything turned into a nightmare as the bitch of a Turks joined the fight on those monsters' side, she wasn't a prisoner she was a damn traitor just as he thought. When the winged monster dog joined the fight the situation became even worse. Not to mention the fact the gunman took down an attack helicopter with a custom handgun before turning into a fearsome monster to rip more men to pieces.
He knew he had to survive and report that it wasn't two escaped specimens using a Turks as a play toy. It was a group of monsters with traitors in their mist.
Turning around one final time to see if they would give chase, the Shinra commander saw blue before his world turned black.
Vincent had finally tired from is transformation into one of his four demons when he noticed that one Shinra commander running away. The former Turk knew that if one person got away to report what happen then those men would know that the two escaped samples and one traitor had a skilled marksman and monster guarding them. He channeled as much magic into his Blizzard materia and sent the ice spear into the face of the trooper.
Just after killing that last trooper, he felt a familiar voice rising in the back of his conscious. –Well, well, well, you finally decided to leave that boring ass coffin. - 'Chaos!' –Don't worry about your 'friends' for now. While I might be a demon who destined to end all life on this planet, it just not time yet for me to awaken. So go out and kill the source of my mother's distress and I might just stay asleep even longer. -
Vincent did not reply knowing the strongest demon inside him went back to sleep…for now.
Since everyone was too injured and tired to try to scavenge anything tonight, they would rest and heal while waiting for Zack to come back from fight Genesis. They hijacked the armored transport vehicle and put their remaining items in there as Lazard and the dying dog help Cloud sit in a chair they pulled out of the building. When asked why he was moving Cloud, Lazard replied. "Zack coming out by next morning, I can feeling through the Angeal cells I have in me."
Cissnei, remembering what Genesis and Dr. Hollander said about Cloud and Zack, tried to get back up but the injuries she received on her abdomen forced her back to the ground in mild pain.
"Don't worry your pretty little head off Cissnei," The Director said as he sat Cloud down on a chair. "Even if I consumed some of the pure S cells Cloud has I still wouldn't survive these wounds." Lazard finished as he picked up the winged dog and laid it on the ground next to him and Cloud.
Cissnei thought about that and was silenced form talking anymore when Vincent put his hand on her shoulder and gave her a look saying 'don't try anything in your state,' look.
The former Shinra employees waited for their 'strongest' member to come back.
-Early Morning, the next day-
Vincent had gone ahead and scavenged ammo, items, and gil from what were left of the troopers. He had found three materia that were part of Shinra new multiple spell materia, two lightning and one ice.
Vincent had awakened Cissnei when Zack came out with a cured Genesis over his shoulder. The SOLDIER First Class placed the deserter on the ground right of Cloud's chair as he went to check on Lazard, who began explaining what happened during his fight with Genesis. He explained that Shinra had attacked them but they managed to kill all the troopers with help from the winged dog.
When Zack noticed the dog he began to sob a bit, caused Cissnei to get up and hurry to her friend/crush. Just as she reached Zack, they both heard the sound of something dropping. They both turned around and shouted, "Director/Mr. Lazard." The final moment of the bastard son of Shinra's president died a savior to these men and woman.
Zack just got up and walked off toward a dumbapple tree and began taking a few down. Vincent just stayed silent as he watched Zack take the apples while Cissnei gave a brief prayer for Lazard.
When Zack returned he said, "I'll fulfill someone's dream." He started handing out the apples to everyone as he walked behind Cloud's chair and said to Genesis. "Okay, let's eat! Sorry I'm not the real thing. But…" Zack took a bit of the apple and was startled when the 'unconscious' Genesis asked if it was good.
After Zack replied, "It is," Genesis said something to low for Cissnei to hear but Vincent did. The members that could stand watched as Lazard and the winged dog returned to the lifestream.
The dog left behind a familiar note that Cissnei saw Tseng gather over the four years Zack had been gone. She had believed he had died until she saw them alive herself.
She knew it was a letter from Aerith and knew it would hasten Zack returned to Midgar and probable death if the Shinra army mobilizes.
"Thank you Kunsel," Zack stated with a grin, which caused Cissnei to peak at the letter (3). It seem the Kunsel manage to pass on the message to Aerith. With that the letter seem really enthusiasm yet at the same time sad as if the Cetra knew Hojo got his hands on Zack. Zack had said something to Genesis that both Vincent and Cissnei missed as the former First Class SOLDIER picked up Cloud and started talking about things they both shared during their time working together with more enthusiasm. It seem Zack really wanted his friend out of his mako addiction as soon as possible.
"Let hurry back to Midgar," Zack said not bothering to hid his enthusiasm of returning to his crush. "Oh, man I just realized I haven't got her a birthday or Christmas present for four years!"
"Hey Cissnei, Vincent," Zack turned to his two responsive members. "What do you think I should get her?"
Cissnei sighed but explain what would be a good gift as they headed to their new hijacked ride. She was slightly depress with how devoted he was to Aerith but when he mention getting present for her and his devoted friends back at Midgar did her mood perk up.
-Almost month earlier- (3)
In Shinra Headquarters, on the 49th floor, SOLDIER members were walking around or training in the hologram rooms. One group of SOLDIER Second and First Class where chatting about the life they had when Shinra still had its best First Class SOLDIER. Two in particular was friends, well one was a true friend while the other was still debatable, talked about the mission they had with the 'deceased' Zackary Fair. What no one outside the group knew was that Kunsel, one Zack's closest friend, knew the First Class SOLDIER was still alive and on his way back due to his connections and abilities that got him into the position of First Class.
The other friend, Luxiere, also knew that Zack was alive thanks to Kunsel, who explained in detail what happened to Zack based on the information he gather from the ex-First Class SOLDIER and from the 67th and 68th floor computers (thanking Minerva he did not get caught thanks to a few old Third Class SOLDIER who wanted to know what happen to their idol.)
Originally, Luxiere was going to e-mail Zack and tell him to turn himself in so he would be promoted to First Class. With both his and Kunsel position, they would try and protected Zack from Hojo.
Luxiere's plan shattered with the information on the JENOVA project, JENOVA Reunion Theory, and it relationship with both SOLDIER and the experiments done to Zack and Cloud, the infantryman every SOLDIER knew since he began working with Zack on every mission the 'puppy' went on.
They also knew Cloud because he was the only infantryman that came back alive after every suicide mission Zack was given. The infantryman's records were used to recruit even more troopers, under the guise that even the weakest basic Shinra infantrymen are great.
In fact, the group they talked with on a daily basis is SOLDIERs that still followed both Angeal and Zack believe in a SOLDIER's honor. They believed, after seeing the information as well, that their honor would be to protected the planet from Shinra as the planets SOLDIER force. In fact, they were waiting on Zack to return before they did anything because they definitely did not want to join the current AVALANCHE because that group contradicted itself too many time.
Now though, the members planned away to get the message to their leader's girlfriend, whom they learned is under Turks' surveillance.
"How are we going to go about this?" a Third Class SOLDIER asked through an untraceable prepaid PHS, most of the lower SOLDIER could not be present without alerting any dedicated SOLDIERs under Heidegger (the current commander of SOLDIER) about their plans, mainly due to what Genesis did with the 2nd and 3rd Class deserters. None of the newer SOLDIERs join this group as all of the newer recruits since Zack's 'death' all follow Heidegger's brute force, no honor, and sickening methods of dealing with problems, which alienated them from the older SOLDIERs. However, those newer SOLDIERs did out number the older with a four to one ratio, despite the fact they were mostly Third Class along with dozens of glorified Seconds and Firsts who are weaker then the older group.
"Hold on a second," Kunsel responded as Luxiere and two other Second Class SOLDIERs went off the secure the hallways. Kunsel made a special video clip that would replay certain images of the group playing card games or arm wresting. Surprisingly, no one, not even the Turks, bothered to check if that was what they were truly doing.
"Play its safe to talk about the plan," Kunsel said as everyone else waited to see what the genius SOLDIER came up with. "The Turks received information about the AVALANCHE and their source of funds so they should be sending out a good bit of their members to cease the flow of money to those terrorists. When they go after them we will be given an opportunity to get the message to Aerith."
Most of them though about that plan and after awhile of throwing useless ideas on getting the message to the last Cetra, they agreed with Kunsel's plan. The plan sounded very simple but it was not due to the Turks watcher, especially after those four Turks women ripped a new one in many of the SOLDIER Third Class when they came back from an investigation of a missing Turks.
While SOLDIER maybe the strongest force in Shinra, women with fighting skills who are furious to what an ex-SOLDIER might have done to their friend and partner was even more dangerous. Thank Gaia that none of those Third Class SOLDIERs were part of their group.
The reason none of the SOLDIERs in this conspiracy group did anything since receiving the message two weeks ago was because of the fact that two of the remaining four female Turks member guarded their target with permission to use lethal force.
Oh boy, who is going to run interference with the Turks?
Kunsel looked around before state, "Everyone. Rock, Paper, Scissor in 3,2,1, shoot."
Three SOLDIERs, one in physical group and the other two location elsewhere-shouted "SHIT."
-One and a half week later-
The plan was in motion since most of the normal Turks watchers went off to stop the AVALANCHE's sponsor within Midgar, leaving the Turks codename Shotgun and Martial Arts. Their real names were unknown to most of Shinra employees so their weapon of choice had named them.
The problem for the SOLDIER was Shotgun since she was the one that returned with the misinterpreted the evidence on Cissnei's 'kidnapping.'
The two Turks knew how to hid themselves from prying eyes but the could not hid well enough for the SOLDIERs to pick them out.
The three SOLDIERs who lost at the quick game of 'Rock, Paper, and Scissors," dress in Raven armor but wore Genesis copy helmet to even further confuse the enemy…hopefully.
"I can't believe I lost," Luxiere said as he and another Second Class SOLDIER helped a Third Class adjust to wielding the twin blades Genesis copies often used.
"Hey," Kunsel whispered to his friend in an attempt to cheer him up. "At least if you guy are somehow start losing you can run, if I get caught talking to Aerith then it would cost me both my job and life...hopefully I'll be kill instead of become another one of Hojo's experiment."
All present members shivered at the though. While Kunsel managed to steal about a quarter of Hojo's computer stored information, he failed to copy enough hardcopy paperwork to use as leverage against the mad scientist. But the information he got was more then enough to put off everyone of the older SOLDIER since they did not have microchips implanted in their neck to force them to follow every order given to them.
Of course, most of the older SOLDIERs knew that they were slowly being picked off one by one as in the past four year nearly a third of the original SOLDIERs were killed in action on mission were their were at least 5 newer SOLDIER accompanying the older one. It got to the point where the older SOLDIERs went on mission together with only one or two newer ones…who usually died off either by the enemy's hand or by the older SOLDIER's hands.
-Twenty minutes later-
"RUN! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!" A disguised SOLDIER yelled as he and his fellow members of the distraction team ducked two separate lines of gunfire. It was suppose to be a simple distraction when the plan was shot to hell when the other two female Turks member, Knife and Gun, came out of nowhere fifteen minutes into the fight and attacked them from behind. They only managed to get away when Kunsel, dressed in a large black coat with an infantry helmet on, threw half a dozen smoke bombs into the fight. While the girls were coughing their lungs out, the injured SOLDIERs ran for it.
After running into a few of the infantrymen that the Turks called in for back-up, they finally got away to redress into their SOLDIER uniform and acted as they were on patrol of the area. They made sure they drank enough potions and used cure spells to hide all their injuries.
"So, Kunsel," Luxiere said as they walked around pretending to be on the fake patrol they managed to set up in the SOLDIER's mission files. "Did you get the message to the girl and why did you have a disguise on?"
"Yes I did delivered the message and the reason I had a disguise was because of that damn guardian monster that is protecting her." He said as he pulled out his torn SOLDIER shirt. "I would died from its attacks if it wasn't for the fact I had shout 'I have a message from Zack.'"
"Anyways let get back to the group and I'll answer the question when we get there." Kunsel said as the other two SOLDIERs with them open their mouths to ask questions.
It was chaotic for the next couple of weeks as SOLDIERs were sent out to search the "Three AVALANCHE Raven/Genesis copies and their cloaked leader" for the next few weeks. During that time, some of the Turks watchers noticed a change in their subject's mood. She seemed happier then she did for the last past four years. No one made the connection the incident with the Raven/Genesis copies and Aerith's joyful mood as most of the Turks were called away on missions to take down the AVALANCHE.
Everyone in the SOLDIER conspiracy group hoped that they done something good for their 'leader's' return.
If only they knew.
-September of the next year (0007 or 2007 depending on the game)-
Zack and Vincent prepared to fight for their right to live in on the outskirts of Midgar. Zack received e-mail from one of Kunsel 'extra' e-mail accounts stating that the army mobilized and most of the Turks wanted them dead. The part about the Turks after his head surprised Zack as he thought they would try to capture him thanks to his connections with Tseng. It was after reading the entire message did Zack ask Cissnei to send a response to Kunsel for him to resend to a Turks and hopefully get them off their backs.
Even with Zack and Vincent back at their peak, with Zack going as far as buying two more broadswords from Kalm. One sword for himself and one for Vincent, who said he had minimum training with swords as a Turks, before getting some more ammo for Vincent. They used the time they had to train as Zack learned to use both his Buster Sword and standard broadsword along with the gunman of his group.
Zack had to force Cissnei to stay with Cloud and the weapons they took off the armored truck. The weapon composed of three rocket launchers, several plain infantry swords with a few plain kanatas, machineguns and sniper rifles with a good supply of ammo.
They could try to go around the army but based on Kunsel's e-mail they would encounter forces of 'escaped' Hojo monsters and be trapped between them and the army if they tired to enter from the South, North, or West entrances.
Luckily for Zack, the army being mobilized has Third Class SOLDIER in it. The lucky part is that a quarter of the Third Class SOLDIER were on his side and would openly join him, if Zack's group manages to take down the attack helicopters. They would be posted near the very back with other Third Class SOLDIER so the second the attack helicopters go down, the army will lose all the SOLDIERs within their rank as the Thirds on Zack side will take down the others.
Cissnei had tried over and over again to let her help by firing the rocket launchers at the attack helicopters but Zack stood firmly on his order to protected Cloud as Vincent would do the honors of shooting down the metal birdies. It was by then that Cloud had started to regain some motor function but was still under the influence of mako addiction.
They pulled up behind a rocky hill as Vincent started leaping up with sniper rifles and rocket launcher on the hill. The red-cloaked ex-Turks had already taken out the three sniper teams that were post up on the hills around them before they arrived. Vincent started turning those spot into his camping grounds in order to level out the plain field.
Zack started to warm-up a bit before drawing his Buster Sword, leaving his second sword on his back, gave a quick shake of Cloud head for luck, and started walking to that waiting hundreds ahead. Cissnei interrupted Zack's walk to death by giving him a deep kiss before leaving in an embarrassed hurry back to the comatose blond. Zack stood there for a second contemplating on the kiss he received before continuing his walk toward the Shinra army.
Zack walked calmly toward the hundreds of guns and swords pointed at him. "Boy, oh boy…" The ex-First Class SOLDIER said as he stopped in front of the army. "The price of freedom is steep." He turned his Buster Sword sideways and held it straight up. Zack bowed his head as he muttered loud enough for the other SOLDIERs in the army to hear, "Embrace your dreams…And, whatever happens, protect your honor." Zack looked up and started running at the army "AS SOLDIER!"
Just before he reached the first grunts, he pulled his second sword off as shouted, "COME AND GET IT."
Zack cut down the first three squads of grunts who were frozen solid from the intense glow of Zack's eye as the swung both of his swords. Just as the troopers began to fire their machineguns, trying to kill Zack but ended up killing a few of their own, two of their six support helicopters blow-up from rockets coming form the hill Zack emerged from. Another two helicopters were destroyed as well by more rocket fire from the hill until the remaining two attack birds sent missiles at the hill.
"Did we get them?" The pilot of the fifth helicopter asked through his Shinra headset. All of a sudden, his co-pilot forced the helicopter higher into the air. "What the hell are you doing?" The main pilot said but before he could continue his barb at his co-pilot, the rocket they dodged shot down the sixth helicopter.
"What the he-" the pilot was cut off as a sniper round torn into his brain and blinded his co-pilot. The second loud boom was the last thing the co-pilot heard before his head became mush.
Everyone in the Shinra army paused and watched their support vehicles go down. In fact, dozens of infantrymen lost their confidence and tried to run for it, only to meet their end by sniper fire from the rocky hills curtsey of Vincent Valentine.
During that pause, Zack dove into a group of troopers with two SOLDIER Third Class in their mist. He activated his Assault Twister+ materia and turned the group into mincemeat. While it would have been possible for the two SOLDIERs to dodge an Assault Twister if Zack had one sword, it was impossible to dodge with him wielding two swords. However, the broadsword he brought was not mint to handle constant steel bashing that turned the once sharp blade into a metal club.
Eight of the remaining fourteen Third Class SOLDIER charged at Zack…only for two of them to strike down another two and flip over the four who tired to avenge their fallen comrades. They landed next to Zack and held their swords in a defensive manner.
"It nice to finally see you again," The one at his right said as he cast several bolt spells at incoming infantrymen. "Yeah it been a long time," The second SOLDIER said as he fired off some fire spell. Both wore standard blue Third Class uniform and were slightly shorter then Zack and both wore SOLDIER helmets to further hide their identity. The former First Class did notice that they seemed more built then the other Third Class SOLIDER in the army.
Zack threw his damaged broadsword at one of the SOLDIER still charging at them and managed to pierce one in the gut as the remaining three meet their ends at the combine forces of three SOLDIERs and a Turks marksman. The troopers around them paused for a minute, unsure of what to do, until the trio of ex-SOLDIERs turns their attention to them.
Two more SOLDIERs at the rear of the group of super-soldiers started attacking the brunt of the SOLDIER forces from behind before both of them were killed off. They died taking out all but one SOLDIER at the end though. It was a good trade off statically but both of the SOLDIERs beside Zack mourned for the lost of their members.
The battle, however, was starting to drain all three ex-SOLDIERs as they quantity of Shinra troopers were starting to overpower them…despite the fact there was only fifteen squads of infantrymen left with the entire SOLDIER unit dead or defected.
Zack was starting to run out of health-based potions as his fellow ex-SOLDIERs had ran out earlier in the fight. Zack was downing ethers repeatedly as he and the other two SOLDIERs cast wide area spells of Electrocute and all powered fire2 and ice2. Zack even managed time to summon Odin to take down three squads of infantrymen with one blow.
It all came to naught as four squads of infantrymen charged the weaken ex-SOLDIER from all four point, guns a blazing, wounding the SOLDIERs with even more injuries.
Just before those four squads of infantrymen could take down the wound and tried SOLDIERs, a sword flew through the air and decapitated five members of the northern squad. All of a sudden, Vincent appeared before them in his Galian Beast form.
It took only four energy and two swipes with it claw to obliterate the remaining Shinra troopers, but it scare the shit out of the ex-Third Class SOLDIER. After all, a monster that could take out that many troops within fifteen seconds rescued them.
Martin and Fallon, the two ex-SOLDIERs Third Class, introduce themselves to Zack as they waited until Vincent turned back into his human form. Once the former Turks turned back into a human…well close enough to pass as one, they marked the graves for their two fallen brothers. It was designed the same way Zack made Essai and Sebastian graves. A standing cross of the swords in an X form with the names carved into the blades.
After a bit of healing and scavenging for supplies, the tired, hungry and injured group of fight went to the stolen armored vehicle to see Cissnei trying to help a responsive Cloud up.
"Cloud?" Zack managed to say as his body and mind was weak from all of the fighting. "Cloud, are you alright buddy?"
Cloud looked at Zack for a minute as his still mako glowing eyes shown no recognition until they dim a bit. However, once they dimmed to the point everyone could see Cloud's blue eye, he fell forward and would have face planted in the ground if Zack and Martin did not catch him.
"Let's getting him to Midgar now," Zack order as the engine roared to life as Cissnei cranked up the truck. "I think Aerith might be able to help Cloud out a bit."
They left the battlefield and headed toward the Section 5 entrance, not even noticing the helicopter heading toward the battlefield.
-A few minutes earlier-
The Turks had been scattered around the plains of Midgar, searching for the two-escaped specimen and their captured Turks member. While most of the Turks on the several helicopter patrolling for Shinra wanted the two specimens dead, the helicopter heading to the remains of the battlefield was Reno and Rude. These two had been give a specific order by the second-in-command, Tseng, to find the two escaped specimen and trade a bunch of letters for their so called hostage, Cissnei.
While most of the other Turks knew Cissnei was usually all business, when it can to Zack, she gave a lot more leeway for his and her own action on the field. Both Reno and Rude knew that the probability of Cissnei being force into a slavery position, of pleasure or other wise, is so low it like asking Hojo if he did not have an experiment.
"Man, are you sure we can stop this fight man?" Reno asked his partner as they came closer to where the reports of fighting happened.
"We can, we are Turks after all." The bald martial artist replied, as they got closer to the battlefield.
"Well I don't see any explosions yet…what the f'king HELL!" Reno yelled out so loud that the microphone on his headset heard it.
"What happened," A voice Reno recognized as his fellow rod user, Jack. "Well report that the specimens managed to beat the entire Shinra army the was mobilized." Rude replied as Reno continued to curse up a storm that would make a sailor proud.
After a few more questions from other Turks members as well as a direct order from Veld to search for signs of where Zack and his buddy went to, Reno landed the helicopter and got out along with Rude.
They searched for any signs of Zack as "carefully as possible." After two hours of searching they found nothing as to where the group might have gone to as the truck trails the headed to Midgar might have come from the armored trucks the transported the infantry here.
Just before they left, the Reno noticed the two swords crossed in an X shape. 'I should tell Tseng about that…it might just be important.' He thought to himself as he reported that the battle seem more then just Zack fighting as there are signs of rocket and sniper fire. All they knew is that the second experiment might have been able to shot down all six helicopters but to take down several infantrymen with headshots was kind of a stretch in his ability base on his military records.
-Midgar, Sector 5 Slums-
The group of rogue Shinra employees had managed to hide their armored vehicle behind some large random bit of scrap metal Kunsel and the other prepared before hand.
"Zack," Cissnei said as she and Martin help the ex-First Class SOLDIER carry Cloud towards Aerith's church. "Are you sure it a good idea to come here at this time?"
Zack paused for a minute as he remembered what Cissnei did before the battle and his mixed feeling on the matter. But Cloud's illness and his promise to his girlfriend had him going forward in front of the double-doors. "Yes, Aerith has always been able to heal odd thing. I know mako addiction might not be one of them but cells Hojo injected him she might be able to do something."
Taking a deep breath in, Zack banged on the doors and prayed that Aerith was in.
The doors slowly creaked out as a familiar, yet older, face appeared in front of him. "Zack?" Aerith shouted with both joy and a hint of sadness written on her face. "Is it really you Zack?"
Zack paused for a moment before say, "Yeah, it me…I promised I would come back." Everyone behind him actually paused for a moment, when was Zack so…unenthusiastic. However, they noticed that the two were getting closer and were about to kiss out in the open where a Turks or someone working for Shinra could still spot them.
Just as two were about to kiss, a cough turned their attention to the four members of his group behind him. All of them, with the exception of Vincent, pointed to Cloud hanging on his shoulder. Remembering why they stopped here in the first place, Zack looked deeply into Aerith's eye. "Umm…Aerith before we err… catch up can you help my friend first."
Aerith giggled, wondering when her boyfriend would remember his priorities first. While she was extremely happy that Zack made it back to her, the Planet wanted to rid the virus that plagues Cloud before it become too late to remove with her powers.
They head inside the church as no one watch the group enter…no human anyways.
TBC.
You can have Zack discover Vincent in the game if you want to.
If anyone is wondering why didn't I just have them skip this part of CCFVII is because it part of the canon and it give Cloud more time to recover from Mako addiction. Also, it part of why Zack can finally believe more deeply in his dreams.
The phone call can change a lot of things.
On another note, Cissnei fainted on purpose if no one can tell. The same can be said about Luxiere's loyalty to Zack. It was somewhat of he was a fan and somewhat friend to Zack but if certain information gets out then I am pretty damn sure his loyalties will be with Zack.
Here is the inventory so that no one can say they have infinite amount of things. Here is Equipment for everyone first.
Zack:
Weapon: Buster Sword-not going to change (broadsword temporary in dual wielding)
Armor: Standard SOLDIER uniform and Shinra Beta+
Accessories: Mog's Amulet
Materia: Hell Firaga, Hell Thundaga, Restore, Electrocute, Assault Twister+, Libra, Bahamut Fury and Odin
Vincent:
Weapons: Cerberus (handgun is not going to change), Mythril Saber (temporary) and a sniper rife. Possible weapon: His left arm
Armor: His black body suit and red cape. Titanium Bangle
Accessories: None
Materia: Blizzard and Pre-Emptive
Cloud:
Weapon: Force Stealer, Mythril Saber and Quicksilver (they will definitely change over time).
Armor: Standard SOLDIER uniform and Bronze Bangle
Accessories: None
Materia: Ice and Lightning
Cissnei- (who real name will be Alison, mainly because I have several female friends with similar personality and soft spoken voice like Cissnei. That and the fact Alison Fair or Alison Strife or ect. [Pairing for her still undecided] sound good to me.)
Weapon: Rekka (the Fuma shuriken she wields, might change) and Quicksilver (temporary).
Armor: louse fitting clothes for mobility, bulletproof vest, and a Shinra Alpha
Accessories: Ribbon.
Materia: Mug, lightening, and restore
Any deserting SOLDIER will that join them temporary
Weapon: Standard SOLDIER broadswords.
Armor: Standard uniform and a Bangle of some sorts depending on rank
Accessories: varies but all based on Crisis core accessories.
Items:
30x potions minus 20=10 left
40x Hi-potions minus 10= 10 left
3x phoenix down minus 2=1 left
40x Ether minus 15= 25 left
20x Turbo Ether minus 10= 10 left
5x Elixir minus 1= 4 left
1x Megalixir
35x antidote
21x Eye drops
12x soft
8x Maiden's Kiss
2x Cornuopia
8xEcho Screen
21x Hyper
13x tranquilizer
15x Remedy.
3x Tents.
12x grenades
Extra equipment and presents:
4x Force Stealers
6x Butterfly Edge
4x Mythril Saber
5X on Aerith presents (wait until next chapter to find out)
How much gil they have?
252,319 gils and counting.
Thank for reading this story and please leave a Review on how it is or if it suck and could use revision (a true revision such as spelling, characterization, speech, and/or clothes not some thing you just want in this story).
This story is not a slash/yaoi/homo story. While I have no problem with people who are gay, (the current president of my club, my sparing partner, etc), it just that yaoi fic are starting to become a majority on this site now so I'm trying to even out the balance.
ALL FLAMES WILL BE USED to keep my pet dog warm.